The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent Edition - but misleading title
After some hesitation, I have given this five stars (i.e. I have reviewed it for what it is, rather than what it should have been.) It is an essential work for anyone interested in the history of the Book of Common Prayer (especially at Amazon's 2011 price!) Its Unique Selling Point is that it prints the original 1662 text of the Book of Common Prayer (not easily...

3.0 out of 5 starsStandard
This is a comprehensive yet slightly bland production of The Book of Common Prayer. There is a useful notes section at the beginning which gives some interesting insight into some of the works that the dedicated reader will find useful. However I think this would have been more useful if it had accompanied the prayers themselves. I will be using this as a reference book...

This review is from: The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Hardcover)

After some hesitation, I have given this five stars (i.e. I have reviewed it for what it is, rather than what it should have been.) It is an essential work for anyone interested in the history of the Book of Common Prayer (especially at Amazon's 2011 price!) Its Unique Selling Point is that it prints the original 1662 text of the Book of Common Prayer (not easily obtainable, as I explain below) - just in time to coincide with its 350th anniversary. Brian Cummings's introduction is very good, but perhaps much too abbreviated, leading to some imprecision. The notes are excellent, but difficult to follow because they are cumulative - you need to check that a point hasn't already been made against an earlier text. Again, fuller notes could always have been made (e.g. the doxology to the Lord's Prayer is never properly explained.)

The title is misleading because only shortened versions of the 1549 and 1559 editions are included, and the full texts are not easily reconstructable from the information given - they are, however (if regrettably) probably the most readily obtainable versions of those editions. (The 1552 edition - a key work - is not included, and neither are the 1550 and 1552 ordinals - the latter is a serious omission, as it is almost identical to the Elizabethan one, and would thus have supplemented the 1559 text.) The texts given are lightly modernised (e.g. for i/j and u/v) - this is perfectly satisfactory for the 1662 text, but less so for the 1549 and 1559 texts, especially as contractions and elisions are also silently expanded.

Serious students really need to supplement this book with E.C.S. Gibson's 1910/1948 Everyman "The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VI", last re-issued by the Prayer Book Society in 1999, which gives the full text of the 1549 edition and a shortened version of that of 1552 (but which can be completed using the 1549 text), as well as full texts of the 1550 and 1552 Ordinals (the Psalter is not, however, included.) Unfortunately, that book is out of print, and only available in dubious Print-On-Demand reprints.

The reason the work under review is the only one to have the original 1662 text is simple: the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is still the official liturgy of the Church of England and is restricted to the official publishers: the Queen's Printer, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press. Most editions claiming to be "1662" are actually the latest text - and that includes Diarmaid MacCulloch's otherwise excellent Everyman edition of 1999: The Book Of Common Prayer: 1662 Version: 1662 Version (Includes Appendices from the 1549 Version and Other Commemorations) (Everyman's Library classics) - Everyman were only able to get permission to print the 1958 edition with later amendments! For the present book, Oxford University Press were able to give themselves permission...

This review is from: The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Hardcover)

Bought as a present for someone far more religious than I am, I almost kept it back to read in detail for myself! The language of the Book of Common Prayer, like that of the King James Bible, is beautiful and easy to understand once you really listen to it or get to know it, unlike that of 'modern' and 'popular' versions which are largely banal and transient! The three versions included here clearly show how the prayer book was were refined modified and 'fine tuned', it's rather like comparing 'the director's cut' versions of films on DVD with the versions shown at the cinema when you first saw them! I still wish that they hadn't dropped the 'carnal desires of the brute beasts that have no understanding' from the wedding service though. After all, I know a lot of folk like that !

This review is from: The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Hardcover)

Cummings has done an extraordinary job. His prefatory material to the evolutionary development of these texts serves to illumine the most familiar works of the English canon. Even if we include the King James Version, there are few words that have a place in our heritage that don't stem from "The Book of Common Prayer." Most of the texts in this volume should be familiar. Their development from inception to Restoration is not.

This review is from: The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Hardcover)

In the 350th anniversary year of the 1662 Prayer Book, Brian Cummings could not have given us a more important reminder of the importance of the Book of Common Prayer in our history. It's a beautifully presented publication, and priced very modestly. I wouldn't wish to be without this profound piece of work on my bookshelf.

This review is from: The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Hardcover)

This book is a useful resource for anyone who is interested in the development of the Church of England's prayer books and liturgy. It provides a comparison between Cranmer's original 1549 prayer book, the Elizabethan revision of 1559 and the 1662 book that we are all familiar with. It is a pity that it does not also include the 1552 revision as well, since that would show the more protestant influence that came in in the later years of the reign of Edward VI. Highly recommended.

One doesn't have to be Christian or even particularly religious to be moved by the numinous power of the words of the Book of Common Prayer - but this is without doubt one of the most powerful religious texts ever written in the English language.

Oxford are to be congratulated on publishing this edition, which allows is to compare the complez stresses and religious changes which influenced the three texts contained herein - 1549, 1559 and 1662. We can follow the journey from its origins in Edward VIs reign to its final version under the restored Charles II in 1662.

What clearly emerges is the compromises between reformers and traditionalists at all stages of the complex sequence of events that we label as the Reformation - as if this were a single event - whereas even allowing for Mary's attempt to roll back the Protestent tide and restore a Catholic England - we can seen that Protestantism as such, was often a house divided against itself.

Useful to show development of ideas - how so much of the Prayer book is bound up with the history of the 16th and 17th centuries and the strongly held views about reformation versus Catholicism. This helps explain why the Prayer Book is as it is and has much to teach us as there are now many voices in the liturgical field. Many Anglican churches now use Common Worship the majority of the time with various local changes that reflect their churchmanship, but the Prayer Book is still authorized for use and enjoyed by many.

This volume had not only the Prayer books of 1549, 1559 and 1662 but notes on the texts, over a hundred pages of explanatory notes and a glossary. The notes are especially useful and explain some of the changes and the thinking behind them. You see things changed in 1559 and then altered back in 1662.

It is not a Prayer Book to be used as such, but a suitable help for those interested in the subject. If you are studying a liturgy module in a Ministry course then this might be useful. If you are interested in the history and background to a book that has never been out of print (1662 version), then this will be of interest.

The one drawback with this volume is it is a substantial paperback, over an inch and half thick. (40 mm) and this means that when open the pages have a tendency to close unless the spine is forced; but this can damage this sort of binding. If you wanted to make constant reference to this then a hard back version might be preferable but is nearly double the price. I use bull dog clips to hold the pages open but I think this still puts pressure on the spine. For this reason I have only given four stars but still recommend it for study.

This is a nicely produced book featuring three key version of the Book of Common Prayer. These are not fully complete, but for the interested reader rather than scholar there is more than enough here. In the lengthy notes which preceed the original texts it is made clear which parts are included and those that are not. Taken as a whole, everything one might ever want is here.

This book excels in the highly readable introduction from Brian Cummings. A fascinating history of the prayer book and England's wider religious journey, it is enjoyable for those with little knowledge and for those who would like to learn more. It makes clear the crucial role the Book had in the reformation. From day one Catholics and those of more traditional tastes were dismayed, as were Puritans who thought it was far too close to the Church of Rome. These were never truly settled, and as Cummings pointed out, this matter of religious division led to civil war. Charting the history of the Book from its predecessor in Luther's "Deutsche Mass" to the twentieth century history of rewrites and amendments, the story is a long one and as Cummings makes the analogue, it is like a character in a novel in the way it itself changes and also alters history.

This most satisfying edition is wonderful as a reference book to turn to time and again, and an enlightening introduction to the subject.

This is a really thick book, 820 pages and contains the texts of three of the Books of Common Prayer written in 1549, 1559 and 1662. The texts written in 1549 and 1559 are very similar, containing chapters relating to Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Communion, Litany, Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Visitation of the Sick, Burial of the Dead and Commination. The text written in 1662 contains much more instruction, with lessons to be read, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Litany, Prayers and Thanksgivings, Collects, Epistles and Gospels, Communion, Baptism, Private Baptism, Baptism of Riper years, Catechism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Visitation of the Sick, Communion of the Sick, Burial of the Dead, Commination, The Psalms of David, Prayer to be used at Sea, Ordinal, State Services, Appendix and a large notes section. It is a very comprehensive book and brilliant to use for reference. Perhaps the only negative thing I can say about it, is that it is paperback and might soon become tatty if used regularly. Would much rather have had a hardback or leather bound version.Excellent reference book for your bookcase though. Would recommend.

This review is from: The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Hardcover)

In contrast to the other review, I deliberately used this book for worship over a two week holiday. Easy use of bookmarks, 'go to' and searching enabled movement rather faster than (some) page turning, to move around in worship. Switching to a Kindle version of the King James Bible for the readings, using again bookmarks for both morning and evening prayer couldn't have been simpler.

The main drawback is getting to the textual notes from the services, easy enough in reverse, however.